Bang-bang-
"So noisy..."
Intense gunfire echoed across the wilderness.
Woken by the noise, Ye Qiyan tiredly opened his eyes and instinctively looked out the window. Pairs of scarlet eyes were chasing the train beneath the night sky.
"What the hell are those things? Scared the life out of me."
The terrifying sight jolted him fully awake.
He hurried to the front of the train, only to discover that the security system had already activated.
"Wait, is this the nighttime danger the broadcast mentioned?"
Ye Qiyan recalled what the broadcast had said after the third station.
[Crimson Moon Wolf] (Level 1) [Pursuit speed: 25 kilometers per hour]
Looking at the monster information identified by the train, he relaxed a little.
Fortunately, the train would not be considered in danger as long as its speed exceeded thirty kilometers per hour.
And his level 2 train had reached forty kilometers per hour. Fortunately, he did not have to worry too much about these monsters catching up.
After washing his face with clean water and letting the cold wind blow over him, Ye Qiyan was fully awake.
[01:44:13]
One in the morning.
His sleepiness had vanished entirely.
He opened the chatroom, and his pupils contracted when he saw the number of people.
[4130/10000]
Wait, how many people were there during the day?
He vaguely remembered there being over seven thousand, nearly eight thousand?
In other words, over four thousand people had already died in the wilderness while he was asleep? And that number was still rising.
A chill instantly sent cold sweat breaking out across Ye Qiyan's back.
Thinking it over carefully, the nighttime danger was far more vicious than the stations.
Anyone whose train could not exceed thirty kilometers per hour would be caught by these monsters and become their meal.
But after three stations, how many survivors had actually managed to reach level 2?
Only those left after surviving this night of terror could truly be called survivors.
To stay alive, they had to do everything they could to upgrade their trains and explore the stations.
Continuing to hide inside their trains as they had before was practically impossible.
Forcing himself to calm down, he noticed a message notification in his private chats.
Shangguan Yingxue: [Still alive?]
["...Just woke up. What do you want to buy?"]
Before long, she replied.
["Bullets. I've run out."]
["Can't sell those. I don't have many left either."]
Ye Qiyan declined Shangguan Yingxue's trade.
With the security system, his ammunition consumption had skyrocketed.
The final slaughter at the third station alone had cost him over seventy rounds.
Counting carefully, Ye Qiyan only had a little over three hundred rounds left now. There was no way he could sell any more.
["Don't you have a Bullet Blueprint?"]
["Of course not. I wish I did."]
["Understood. Goodbye."]
The conversation ended.
Shangguan Yingxue's decisive manner really did make communicating with her easy.
Ye Qiyan sat down in his chair and opened his personal information.
[Stamina: 82] [Spirit: 110]
"Recovered... Huh? Wait?"
His hand froze in midair as he was about to close his personal information.
He rubbed his eyes and pinched himself as he stared at those two crucial stats, stamina and spirit.
"Hiss, my maximum spirit increased? What's going on? Was it something I did?"
He tried hard to recall what had happened before he fell asleep. Aside from completely exhausting his stamina and spirit, nothing else seemed to have happened, had it?
Ye Qiyan shook his head and tucked away his doubts.
Whatever the case, an increase in spirit was a good thing for him.
He stood up and reached out to touch the control console.
"It's time."
Three stations had passed. It was time to perform another Ascension on his train.
An invisible force enveloped the entire train, and his stamina and spirit drained away wildly like water from a lake through an opened floodgate.
Going from level 1 to level 2 had only cost him a mere 30 stamina.
But going from level 2 to level 3 clearly would not be so simple.
[Stamina: 82 → 52] [Spirit: 110 → 50] [Train upgrade complete!] [Current level: 3] [Materials required for the train's next upgrade: 300 kilograms of wood, 300 mechanical parts, 450 kilograms of metal, 10 kilograms of glass, 5 kilograms of gold, 5 kilograms of mithril, one flamefire stone] [Unlock upgrade options] [Congratulations on breaking the record for the fastest train to reach level 3! You have received one Train Conductor Module Card!]
Ninety points, a full three times as much as before.
Ye Qiyan rubbed his brow. What about going from level 3 to level 4? Would it also cost three times as much as now, or even more?
But getting him to obediently use materials to upgrade?
Forget it.
Just look at the materials needed for the next level. He did have mithril, and obtaining gold was also possible.
But what on earth was that flamefire stone? He had never even heard of it.
"Let's look at the changes after the upgrade first. Hopefully, the upgrade options won't be too bad."
First was speed, which had increased from forty to sixty kilometers per hour.
Next, needless to say, the chassis, wheels, and frame had all reached level 3 strength as well, allowing them to withstand more attacks.
Just like last time, the important things were still the upgrade options and the module card awarded for breaking the record.
The difference was that this time, it was a train conductor module.
"View upgrade options."
[Opening] [Options are as follows] [1. Train Conductor Module Card: Leave Station Privilege (3 Train Coins)] [2. Bullet Blueprint (Level 3) (4 Train Coins)] [3. Power Generation Device Blueprint (Level 3) (6 Train Coins)] [4. Increase stop duration by 1 hour (1 Train Coin)]
"Talk about getting exactly what I wanted."
Looking at the entries among the upgrade options, Ye Qiyan was already delighted.
Aside from the fourth option, which was most likely a standard upgrade option, the other three undoubtedly matched his needs perfectly.
He was short on bullets, and here came a blueprint, a level 3 one at that.
More importantly, there was the blueprint for the power generation device. Although he had nothing that needed electricity yet, he would definitely have a use for it later.
There was only one thing that pained Ye Qiyan.
He had thought owning ten Train Coins made him a little rich. Never had he expected that he still would not be able to buy all the upgrade options in one go.
He had to make a choice.
"What is the Leave Station Privilege?"
[Train Conductor Module Card: Leave Station Privilege] [After use, allows departure from a station one hour early]
Good stuff. With this module, he could simply leave the station early if he encountered danger, although only by one hour.
After a moment's thought, he took out eight Train Coins and bought options 1, 2, and 4.
Although he really wanted the generator, the other three were equally important, especially that module.
[Bullet Blueprint] (Level 3) [Each batch requires: 3 kilograms of metal, 500 g of gunpowder] [100 bullets per batch]
Making bullets did not require many materials, but where was he supposed to get gunpowder?
There was some for sale on the trading platform, but the quantity was extremely small, not even enough to make a single batch.
How about buying some in the chatroom?
Ye Qiyan shook his head. Even if he wanted to buy some, now was not the time.
He had something more important to do.
Module: Leave Station Privilege.
"Ascension."
[Stamina: 32] [Spirit: 30] [Train Conductor Module Card: Leave Station VIP Privilege] [Once the stop countdown has 3 hours remaining, you may start the train and leave the station at any time.]
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